Vice President Data and Artificial Intelligence

SCA Health•UNAVAILABLE, UNAVAILABLE

13h•Hybrid

About The Position

At SCA Health, we believe healthcare is about people – the patients we serve, the physicians we support and the teammates who push us forward. Behind every successful facility, procedure or innovation is a team of 15,000+ professionals working together, learning from each other and living out the mission, vision and values that define our organization. As part of Optum, SCA Health is redefining specialty care by developing more accessible, patient-centered practice solutions for a network of more than 370 ambulatory surgical centers, over 400 specialty physician practice clinics and numerous labs and surgical hospitals. Our work spans a broad spectrum of services, all designed to support physicians, health systems and employers in delivering efficient, value-based care to patients without compromising quality or autonomy. What sets SCA Health apart isn’t just what we do, it’s how we do it. Each decision we make is rooted in seven core values: Clinical quality, Integrity, Service excellence, Teamwork, Accountability, Continuous improvement, Inclusion. Our values aren’t empty words – they inform our attitudes, actions and culture. At SCA Health, your work directly impacts patients, physicians and communities. Here, you’ll find opportunities to build your career alongside a team that values your expertise, invests in your success, and shares a common mission to care for patients, serve physicians and improve health care in America. At SCA Health, we offer a comprehensive benefits package to support your health, well-being, and financial future. Our offerings include medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401k plan with company match, paid time off, life and disability insurance, and more. Click here to learn more about our benefits. Your ideas should inspire change. If you join our team, they will.

Requirements

10+ years in data, analytics, or AI leadership roles, with 4+ years at VP or equivalent level
Demonstrated experience building enterprise data platforms at scale (cloud-native, modern data stack: dbt, Spark, Databricks or Snowflake)
Healthcare data experience required — EHR integration (HL7/FHIR), HIPAA compliance, clinical data structures and terminology
Hands-on experience leading AI/ML initiatives from business case through production deployment and ongoing monitoring
Proven track record building and leading high-performing technical teams of 10+ people in complex organizations
Experience establishing data governance frameworks in multi-site or distributed healthcare organizations
Cloud data platforms: Databricks, Snowflake, or Azure Synapse — architectural fluency required (not just familiarity)
Healthcare interoperability: HL7 v2, FHIR R4, SMART on FHIR — integration pattern experience
ML frameworks and MLOps: MLflow, Kubeflow, SageMaker, or Vertex AI
Data governance tooling: Collibra, Alation, or equivalent enterprise catalog platforms
BI and analytics: Tableau, Power BI, or Looker — platform strategy and semantic modeling
GenAI patterns: RAG architecture, LLM evaluation frameworks, prompt engineering at enterprise scale
Equally fluent in the executive boardroom and the data architecture whiteboard — not one or the other
Build trust with clinicians and operational leaders; demonstrates clinical context, not just technical empathy
Makes decisions with data, not just instinct — models the culture they are trying to build
Comfortable with greenfield environments and ambiguity — a builder, not just an operator
Demonstrates genuine commitment to responsible AI — not just checkbox compliance orientation
Attracts and develops exceptional talent; creates careers, not just roles
Strong executive communication skills — comfortable presenting to boards, CMOs, and CFOs with and without technical audiences

Nice To Haves

Ambulatory surgery, surgical specialty, or multi-site healthcare network experience
Familiarity with FDA Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) regulatory framework for clinical AI
Experience deploying generative AI in enterprise or clinical settings (RAG pipelines, LLM evaluation, guardrails)
Track record of data product thinking — not just infrastructure, but data as a product consumed by business users
Graduate degree in computer science, data science, statistics, biomedical informatics, or related field
Experience operating in a PE-backed or high-growth acquisition-driven environment

Responsibilities

Define and execute SCA Health's multi-year data platform roadmap — cloud data architecture, EHR/PAS data integration (HST, Athena, eCW, etc.), real-time pipelines, and the infrastructure that makes trusted data available to every decision-maker across the enterprise.
Lead SCA's AI roadmap — from MLOps infrastructure and model development through production deployment and monitoring. Prioritize use cases with rigorous business case analysis and establish clinical validation protocols.
Establish SCA's responsible AI standards — model documentation, bias monitoring, explainability requirements, and the AI Review Board that ensures every clinical AI deployment meets the highest standards of safety and transparency. Track FDA SaMD guidance.
Operate as the data and AI thought leader for the enterprise — partnering with VP Product on data-informed product decisions, with CISO on data security and AI risk, with Head of Architecture on platform design, and with clinical and operational leaders on use case identification and adoption.
Build and lead a high-performing team of 12–15 data and AI professionals across six functional areas. Establish a culture of rigor, curiosity, and clinical partnership that attracts top talent in a competitive market.
Own the Data & AI technology budget, vendor evaluation, and contract strategy. Make disciplined build/buy/partner decisions and defend investment priorities with rigorous ROI analysis to executive and board-level audiences.
Support evolving SCA’s enterprise data governance framework — ownership model, data dictionary, quality standards, master data management, and compliance posture across HIPAA, TEFCA/HTI-1, and emerging interoperability mandates. Function currently reports to Sr. VP of Innovation.